Northwest Fishing Reports

Went out today on Lake Goodwin. New boat and not very experienced with fresh water fishing. Left the downriggers at home today and think it made a difference. Found out my Ipilot Minnkota will kick along with a full charge at about 1.5ish, but when the charge got low it barley clicked along at .7 ish. Fired up the 115 Mercury 4 stoke, and found at the lowest, it does great at exactly 2.5.

My question is after switching gear, but never getting a good feel for the lake. Had some great hits but no netted fish. What speeds do you do on lakes? I want to go to Stevens and Merdian for Kokonee this month. Speeds for down rigging different than flat lining?

Thanks for ahead of time for your advice and sharing your experience.

Doug

As slow as you can go and yet keep your lure performing. I typically run from 1 to 1.5mph (via GPS) for either DR or flatlining.

If you get stuck and have to troll with the 115 Merc, consider tipping it up a little so the prop wash is aimed somewhat up toward the surface. That will slow you down a some. Just be sure the water intake is well submerged and that the motor is always pumping a full flow.

A kokanee fishing TV show at Chelan described speeding up to 2 or 2.5 and catching fish. Kokanee are very capable of swimming fast, and while "troll slow" is often repeated, I've yet to hear an explanation of why. As Buzzacott said in his 1903 book, "The ways of the fish no man knoweth."

However, as mentioned above, lure action is significant. Some attractors can tolerate a wider range of speed while others are more speed-sensitive. Drag your attractors with lures attached alongside the boat at different speeds and watch how they act. Use what you learn from that to determine your speeds. Experiment within the speed ranges where your attractors behave reasonably and don't "lose it."

Keep in mind that changing your speed will change the depth of your lures. How much depends partly on the amount of line you have let out, both with flatlining and with the amount of line setback from your downrigger release.

The body of water you are fishing can make a huge difference in your trolling speed. An example would be Lake Rosevelt; where it is common to troll for trout at around 2.5-3.0 mph. Then on the other hand when trolling for trout in Lake Goodwin you may be fishing .8-1.4 mph. We fished Goodwin Saturday as well. We pulled a variety of gear and put 15 fish on ice, 4 of which were 2+ pounds. We were on the water midday-early afternoon.

There are several factors in deciding optimal trolling speed. The two main factors are, what lure you are using and what do the fish you are after want, today? Being able to troll at speeds from .5 to 3.0mph will pretty much cover situation you will run into. The gear I usually run in lakes has good action between 1.5 and 2.0mph. In larger lakes I prefer to run at the higher speeds so I can cover more water. However, if it takes running at 1.0mph to get bit, then I'll run at 1.0mph. When you are trolling, it's important to alter speeds until you figure out what is going to work today. Sometimes experience can be our own worst enemy and prevent us from deviating from what has worked for us in the past. For me fishing is all about the challenge of putting together all the variables and coming up with a solution that produces hookups. I learn as much from a day I get skunked as I do from a day in which I limit.

If I were in your current situation, I'd use the electric for trolling at 1.4mph an below. These speeds are normally associated with kokanee and walleye. For trout I'd run the main motor and either use a drift sock to slow the speed down or kick the motor in and out of gear which can be a deadly technique when flat lining your gear.

i switch between 3 boats and 2 different motors on my 12 footer but i go as slow as possible. my GPS isn't fancy enough to tell me speeds, basic handheld unit. my 2 bigger boats at lowest idle is quite a bit faster then my 12 on either the 6hp or electric. one of the 2 lakes I usually fish is internal combustion engines prohibited so I sometimes troll on the oars after the battery dies.

1.0-2.0 is a good speed for kokes, remeber this when you have your DR out they will help slow your boat down as well. Everyone has given great answers to you so far so read them all. Sounds like you might need to add a small kicker and forget the electric trolling motor but not sure how big your boat is and if you have the room. A 9.9 sounds like a cure for your pain.
Good luck hope you slow it down and find some fish.

I troll anywhere from .5 mph to 3 mph, deppends on target and conditions, if you troll flies, you can troll even slower than .5 mph, if your trolling rapalas for browns you should be closer to 2-3mph. wedding rings and typical troll gear perform best between .8 and 2mph. Also try changing speed and direction often, my troll pattern isnt a straight line, its best to meander around slowing and speeding up at random to induce a bite.. this technique works very well.

Another question, The little 12 inch rainbows had a very hard time popping the line out of the clip. I am using the lowest setting on the Cannon clips. Anyone got any tricks for that?

That's not a real problem as you need some good resistance to drive the hook home. If they were popping it easily, you'd be losing fish. If you have a hard time releasing the line from the clip once you have a fish on, adjust how far back you insert the line into the clip's jaws.